Pili (Mjomba Hussein) A typical example of women Small Scale Miners Struggles ..Her story

Pili, popularly known as "Mjomba Hussein" (Uncle Hussein) is a Tanzanite Miner in Mererani, Northern Tanzania. Pili is in her middle 50s and owns Tanzanite mines. Apart from mining, Pili also engages in farming food crops such as maize, beans, millet and potatoes to feed her workers. Pili comes from a poor family of 12 children and 2 wives. Her parents were small scale farmers from Singida and they never engaged in any mining activities. Married at young age, Pili does not know how to read and write as she never been to school. The bride price paid to her parents was used to pay for her bother's school fees.

Pili migrated to Mirerani in mid 70's, aiming at working on mining as her marriage did not work due to violence. She started working in mining pits disguising as a man as traditions and customs barned women to work underground. She later managed to own three mining plots. In 1979 Tanzania enacted mining act which encouraged industrial mining. As a result Pili lost two of her mining plots to foreign investor and remained with one.

Currently, Pili is employing more than 100 people in her mine. She is providing for her family and owns other business which helps in running of her mining. The government of Tanzania and financial institutions have not provided any support or loan to run the business as they claim small scale miners can not be financed. Pili
depends on other business and farming to run her mining activities. The government of Tanzania under the ministry of Mineral and energy allocates budget for small scale miners but Pili has never received any funds from the government. There is no clear strategy on how these funds supports small scale miners and particularly women.

Pili accumulates an important knowledge on policy practices and geo-morphological information as she has worked underground and live in mining communities for three decades. Although she does not know how to read and write, her experience and knowledge could be used for research and policy formulation. She seats in Tanzania Women Miners Association (TAWOMA) commettee and share her experiences with other women.

Since 2012, Pili joined leadership program coordinated and facilitated by HakiMadini. She is mobilizing women from her area to claim for the women positions in leadership in the mining sector. She is finances small struggles organized by women and youths to claim the right to land, dignity and violence free lives of women. She is very unhapy with government unfullfilled promises and encourages women to work and not wait for government to provide everything for them.